Thread: Lawn renovation

I am bidding on a job that involves a 20' x 50' area which was apparently scalped beyond help by the LCO the customer had before. She wants the area tilled and seeded with bluegrass. I usually only stick to mowing so I have little idea where to start. Any advice that you could give me regarding pricing or proper procedure for doing this job would be greatly appreciated.

Thats 1000 sq. ft. If you choose to take the job this is 1 idea of how it should go.

THE BID $350.00

1. rent a tiller (if you dont have one)
2. till the area
3. hand prep removing any stones and debris
4. install seed with broadcast spreader.
5. I know she wants Bluegrass but you might want to buy a mix. For example....Mixes with rye (an annual grass) show signs of growth alot faster than Bluegrass alone. The rye dyes off awile anyway.

mike48114,
Thats .35 a square foot. Can you really get that much for a lawn renovation? Or is there a minimum involved?
I'm just planning to start a fert/renovation/overseeding company so any help with pricing would be great
Thanks in advance

If theres a semblance of turf already there, why not just slit-seed into it? Why go through the hassle of tilling and raking, then having to worry about wash-out?

We've got a slit-seeder for sale, if you are interested....

The only reason I can see for tilling and re-seeding would be if the grade is completely wrong, and that is what led to the lawn being scalped in the first place.

$.35/sq ft sounds high, but for that small of a job, if I were to till it, rake it, re-seed and everything else, I would have to charge about that amount. You need to have a minimum price, or you won't make any money. The only exception would be if you had several of these to do on the same street, all next door to each other....

tawilson, we use either straw or peat moss depending on how offen the customer can water the lawn. if we straw we offer a one time cut if we don't maintain the property and cut the yard after the seed germinates at 2'' to suck up most of the straw. also this gives us a chance to make sure there isn't any bare or thin spots. at that time we also apply urea at a low rate to give the roots a boost.